Franklin's experiment with the kite – Historic Print
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
Few images capture their era like this historic photograph of Franklin's experiment with the kite. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
The framed print arrives ready to hang; the unframed option suits custom framing. A conversation-starting piece for home, office, or as a meaningful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
Franklin's experiment with the kite
Order a print
Thank you. Your order went through, and a receipt is on its way by email.
Secure checkout · SSL encryptedPowered by Stripe and PayPal
Free shipping in the lower 48 states. The checkout page shows the picture, size and price before you pay.
Franklin's kite experiment is shown here as a conjectural scene, drawn from a painting by Charles E. Mills and reproduced photographically around 1911. Franklin flew a kite into a thundercloud over Philadelphia in 1752, hoping to show that lightning was a form of electricity, and the experiment became one of the most famous demonstrations of his scientific career. No eyewitness image of the event survives, so artists of later generations, including Mills, imagined the scene from written accounts and the period's ideas about storms and electrical charge. The picture is valued as much for showing how Americans of the early twentieth century remembered Franklin as for any record of the experiment itself.
| Created / published | c1911. |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 photographic print. |
| Genre | Conjectural works 1910-1920.Art reproductions 1910-1920..Photographic prints 1910-1920. |
| Notes | G36759-60 U.S. Copyright Office. Reproduction of painting by Charles E. Mills. |
| Subjects | Franklin, Benjamin,--1706-1790. Experiments--1750-1760. Electricity--1750-1760. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 1,536 × 1,106 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-167715 |
More from the Presidents collection
Snapshots of the Past helps heritage brands, museums, historians and storytellers tell stories with history: historic prints, image licensing and historical storytelling drawn from more than 25 years of research and curation.
![[Faust] / Franklin T. Wood.](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/50/50eaa572638e-400.webp)
